The 31-year-old bowler Mohammed Siraj has opened up on his Champions Trophy snub and also revealed how he used the break time.
Siraj was a non-travelling reserve for the Champions Trophy and was part of the squads in the 2023 ODI World Cup and the 2024 T20 World Cup.
However, he was excluded from the squad for the tournament as the Indian team management decided to go with five spinners as they played all their matches in Dubai.
Speaking ahead of the Gujarat Titans debut in the IPL 2025 campaign, Mohammed Siraj said, “When you play for the country, you get a lot of confidence. As an international player you always want to play in an ICC event.”
“At the beginning, I couldn’t digest that I wasn’t part of the squad. Rohit bhai also does what is best for the team and that’s why he did it. He has so much experience and knew that pacers won’t be of much use on that track. He knew that spinners will be for useful and that’s why they decided to snub me,” said Siraj.
Siraj said that he has been working on his fitness and bowling during the Champions Trophy and added that he was playing for a long time he didn’t release the mistakes he was making.
Mohammed Siraj said the biggest thing was to see India win the Champions Trophy in the end.
“For a long time, I was playing continiously. So I used the break to work on my fitness and bowling. When you’re playing you don’t realise the mistakes you make. So it was a good break and we won the Champions Trophy as well. That was the biggest thing,” said Siraj.
Gujarat Titans will play their 2025 season opener against Punjab Kings on March 25 at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad.
